The Bible addresses human sexuality form a holistic perspective of God’s intention and design. In contrast to both pagan sex rituals and modern obsession with sex, the Bible places sex within the total context of human nature, happiness, and holiness.
Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (SEX, BIBLICAL TEACHING ON)
Sexual intercourse between persons too closely related for normal marriage. The twofold theological rationale for the prohibition of incestuous unions is the divine claim “I am the Lord your God” (Lev 18:2,4,6) and the note that such behavior characterized the Egyptians and
Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (INCEST)
General term for religions marked by rites that reenact a myth accounting for the orderly change of the seasons and the earth’s fruitfulness. Such myths often involve a great mother-goddess as a symbol of fertility and a male deity, usually her consort but sometimes a son, who like vegetation dies and returns to life again. In Mesopotamia the divine couple was Ishtar and Tammuz (who is mourned in Ezek 8:14); in Egypt, Isis and her sons Osiris: in Asia Minor, Cybele and Attis. In Syria the Ugaritic myths of the second millennium B.C. pictured Baal-Hadad, the storm god, as the dying and rising god. (A local manifestation of this god is mourned in Zech
Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (FERTILITY CULT PT1)